We’re excited to share with you a new book by our colleague and former Baltimore budget director, Andrew Kleine. The book is titled City on the Line: How Baltimore Transformed its Budget to Beat the Great Recession and Deliver Outcomes. You can purchase it now on Amazon.
Baltimore has received national recognition for inventing CitiStat—an office that uses data to evaluate and improve the quality of public services in the city— and being a leader among large cities in Outcome Budgeting. The city has adopted Results-Based Accountability (RBA) as a way to “marry” CitiStat and Outcome Budgeting. OutcomeStat aligns CitiStat and Outcome Budgeting with RBA Turn the Curve plans for the City’s seven Priority Outcomes. It also uses data-driven decision making to align resources from all sectors in building and sustaining the best possible quality of life in Baltimore.
About City on the Line:
Clear Impact CEO, Adam Luecking (left), and author of City on the Line, Andrew Kleine, at book launch party.
In City on the Line, Andrew asks why the way government does its most important job – deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars – hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. Parts memoir, manifesto, and manual, this book tells the story of Baltimore’s radical departure from traditional line-item budgeting to a focus on outcomes like better schools, safer streets, and stronger neighborhoods—during one of the most tumultuous decades in the city’s history. Elected officials, executives, and citizens alike will be equipped to transform budgets in their city, state, or any other mission-driven organization.
“This book is about how public servants can keep their promises by turning the most change-resistant bureaucracy in government–the budget process–from a force for unnecessary paperwork into a force for good.” (City on the Line, pg. 1)
Clear Impact in Baltimore
Clear Impact is proud to have worked with Andrew and the City of Baltimore to develop RBA Turn the Curve plans and report performance measures. In 2015, Clear Impact staff sponsored and facilitated the first OutcomeStat Conference in Baltimore City. During this two-day event, community partners, government officials, and others convened to discuss the current direction of city-wide indicators of wellbeing, strategies to turn the curve on these measures, and possible five-year targets. All Baltimore agencies also use the Clear Impact Scorecard to manage service performance data and Turn the Curve plans. According to Kleine, “Scorecard has become the central platform for performance measurement and management in Baltimore, fulfilling part of the vision of Mark Grimes and I had for OutcomeStat, to marry CitiStat and Outcomes Budgeting.” (City on the Line, pg. 201)
About the Author:
Andrew Kleine is a nationally recognized leader in budgeting for outcomes, long-term financial planning, Lean Government, and pension and health benefits reform.
Andrew became Baltimore’s budget director in 2008, after nearly 15 years of federal government service that included budget and policy positions in the U.S. Department of Transportation, White House Office of Management and Budget, and Corporation for National and Community Service.
He received the 2016 National Public Service Award from the American Society for Public Administration and the National Academy of Public Administration.
Andrew holds a B.A. in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan.
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